Bragg: Taking another shot at ad for gun classes

Updated 1:57 am, Thursday, February 2, 2012

Keller, a guy with a big smile, a big personality and a big straw hat, found himself in the cross hairs of an indignant nation when he announced, in a small-town radio ad that aired last fall, that he wouldn't allow Muslims, liberals or Barack Obama voters to sign up for his concealed-handgun classes.

The ad played only on the local radio station but somehow ended up on YouTube, where it quickly went viral.

Though thousands of phone calls and emails were supportive, Keller was roasted rhetorically in many corners of the Internet and by talking heads on both sides of the AM radio and basic cable spectrums. There were a few death threats, too. And there was some confusion about whether some of the ad's verbiage was anti-Semitic, wording that Keller deeply regrets today.

But if he had to do it all over again, he told me last week, he would. And he has. Sorta.

Keller's new ad, though not as inflammatory, would clearly constitute another volley fired in the direction of the politically correct. The pitch shows up on his website (kellersstore.com) advertising the gun classes he teaches at his ranch. It ends with the following:

"We will offer a prayer for our country and a safe class along with reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the class. If this offends anyone - you're in the wrong place! Please be forewarned: I use politically incorrect words and statements with no shame! If you don't love and respect the United States of America, you're in the wrong place!"

He chuckled about the ad.

"I did this one because now I've got a reputation to uphold."

If the ads offend you, understand that they represent his political views, not his personality. I don't agree with all of his politics, but he's a really great guy - intelligent, upbeat and friendly to a fault. He likes to tell stories, and he does it well. On a recent visit, we spoke for two hours before the Q-and-A even began.

Here's how the original ad ended: "If you are a socialist liberal and

or voted for the current campaigner-in-chief, please do not take this class. You've already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller."

At the height of the controversy, Keller was the hottest thing to hit Mason County since Cooper's BBQ. He was being interviewed, he recalls, five times daily.

"We probably had 3,000 phone calls over a two-and-a-half-week period," he says. "I tried to answer each and every one of them personally, but at a certain point, it became impossible. The messages would fill up our machine. We would go through them. By the time we cleared those out, the machine had filled up again."

Seventy-five calls were critical. He didn't care. The calls that bothered him the most, however, came from a half-dozen folks who wondered if the message slammed Jews, based on the use of the term "non-Christian."

"I regret that wording," Keller said. "That was not my intention at all."

He acknowledges the ad was discriminatory but won't back down. It's a free country, he says, and it described how he feels.

He also says gun ownership is the ultimate responsibility and suggests that a lot of legally qualified Americans aren't up to the task.

"As a patriot," he says, "I believe in the Second Amendment, but these days, this country is full of bad people. We should look at who we're selling guns to."

Just to be clear - that's not meant to be a restriction of gun ownership but a pox upon dummies.

Reaction to the commercial has slowed, though he still gets at least one phone call a day, he says. The callers are supportive.

"There's a certain responsibility that comes along with this," he says. "I have people who believe in me now. It's not a burden. It's humbling."

Roy Bragg's column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Email him at rbragg@express-news.net and follow @roybragg on Twitter. He blogs at http:blog.mysanantonio.com/atlarge.